


I'll paint your body

by NotyourLucy



Category: SK8 the Infinity (Anime)
Genre: AU, Body Paint, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:09:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29845452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotyourLucy/pseuds/NotyourLucy
Summary: Let's imagine that Joe can paint, too. And once he got a very interesting project on modern art.Timeline - Highschool.
Relationships: Nanjo Kojiro | Joe/Sakurayashiki Kaoru | Cherry Blossom
Comments: 2
Kudos: 70





	I'll paint your body

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not a native speaker, so sorry in advance for possible mistakes. 
> 
> Enjoy!

“I need your body!” Kojiro demanded with a weird joy, staying at the class door.

“I’ll pass,” Kaoru replied without doubt. He was too focused on perfect writing of the last line for the difficult kanji to understand what was asked of him. Only when he finished and moved his hand away, his brain finally registered the sentence and Kaoru turned to the smiling asshole who somehow was his best friend. “I beg your pardon, _what?_ ”

“I need your body!” repeated Kojiro with a stupid smile. Obviously, Kaoru raised eyebrows high enough for Kojiro to start explaining, “I have a project on modern art. I need to paint something on the unexpected canvas.”

“And you, moron, decided that my body will do?” Kaoru asked so salty that it could spoil the meals for the whole city, but deep inside he knew that he would agree to that. At least, the idea was exciting enough to make him interested in the result. 

“You have tender shoulders. And pale skin. And long hair. And pierced ears.”

“Enough, stop it already. I got it,” Kaoru rushed to interrupt him. _What? Tender shoulders?_ \- “You have a picture in mind, and it’s me in this picture. Okey.”

“Okey?”

“Okey.”

“Okey?”

“Ask me once again, and I’ll change my mind,” Kaoru rolled his eyes. 

“When is a good time?” Kojiro, surprised by the lack of resistance, decided not to lose a chance. 

“Weekend? I guess it'll take some time, so I’ll stay overnight at your place…” Kaoru turn a ring in the corner of his mouth with a tongue. 

“Awesome!” Kojiro smiled so brightly so it was almost blinding. “Then pizza’s on me. And don’t forget your yukata, Cherry”

“You’re out of your mind! No way, I won’t take it for a fucktard as you to ruin it with a paint!” - frowning Kaoru crossed his arms at the chest. 

“It will be okay, don’t panic so much,” snorted Kojiro, but Kaoru didn’t want to take a risk. 

“Nope.”

“C’mon, Kaoru…”

“I’ve told you - no way,” Kaoru raised to stare at the jerk. “Take it, or I won’t take part in it, too”  
“Okay,” Kojiro decided not to push his luck and finally clashed at the desk nearby. Kaoru glared at him for some more seconds, but he pretended to be busy with finishing his literature hometask, so Kaoru could only take his place too. And just in time for a bell. 

Surely, at the end of the lesson a smashed piece of paper landed at the edge of his desk. He carefully opened it using only two fingers. In the middle of the torn notebook page was Kojiro’s scratchy writing “Can’t wait for Saturday!”. Kaoru chuckled and smashed the paper again, throwing it to the rubbish bin when the teacher wasn’t looking. 

But yeah, he also was interested in the result. 

Can’t wait for Saturday. 

***

When Saturday finally came, Kaoru understood that it’s difficult for him to focus on the errands he needed to do before meeting with Kojiro. They are meeting at the skate park at seven. And he felt every second before that time. He even thought that the clocks stopped working, but no. There was just a weird feeling, like something jittered and shivered inside. What a bullshit. He only agreed to take part in another stupid Kojiro’s shenanigan. What so terrifying can happen?... 

When he finally took his backpack and rode to the skate park, it was quarter to seven. And Joe was there. He was working on the new jump (the one that Cherry had recently learnt), and Cherry couldn’t help smiling when he saw Joe tottered but keeping balance after very difficult turn. 

“Can’t wait, hah?” Cherry raised his voice, and Joe, having looked at him, fell from the board and made a fun jump to keep his posture. Watching laughing Cherry, Joe answered, “As far as I can see, you too. Let’s go?”

“Hey, I haven’t ridden yet!”

“You’ll do it tomorrow. We’ll start from the very morning. The light will be perfect soon”

Okay. Kaoru couldn’t argue with that, so he only nodded, getting ready to move to Kojiro’s place. 

“Come last and you will put away futons in the morning!” he said above the shoulder and rushed to the friend’s place. Kojiro followed suit. As the result, they reached the fence simultaneously. Garden was the place where skates were forbidden. That fact Kaoru, as a permanent guest of the house, remembered too well after Nanjo-san’s reprimand on the day they accidentally ruined her flower bed. So he took his skate and ran to the house. Putting off his sneakers, he hurried up to Kojiro’s room. But Kojiro outran him at the last moment, easily jumping over the rails, and pretended to close the door at his face. 

Still snickering and trying to catch his breath, Kaoru gave the most indifferent sniff, “Well, okay. Breakfast is on you, anyway.”

“You even can order in straight to the bed,” happily snickered Kojiro, opening the door for him again. Something moved inside Kaoru’s chest. It had been happening recently pretty often after stupid jokes of his best friend. Or maybe it happened only because his body continued changing. Doctors said that it’s quite normal. 

The familiar room looked as if Kojiro was ready to start working on his project immediately. There was a little round mirror at the window, a bar stool stood in front of the window, and there were paints, brushes and water on the desk nearby. 

“I hope it's easy to wash away,” Kaoru tsked, stepping into the room. 

“Don’t worry, it’s easy to wash with water,” Kojiro just waved at him, “Will you put away your T-shirt?”

“No, you can paint only on the visible parts of my body,” Kojiro snorted, pulling his hoodie and T-shirt over his head. Neatly putting them on the backpack, he hesitated for a moment, but took the packet from the bag. Turning to Kojiro he said, “I didn’t take yukata, you know, but…” 

He shut up when he saw his friend giving him the same wit of fabric as he had but of green colour. Kojiro, started to say something, stopped too. They look at each other and burst out laughing. Well…

“It’s for the best,” nodded Kojiro, coming to Kaoru and watching him so closely that is even felt uncomfortable for a couple of seconds. “We’ll put both with overlap. C’mon, climb on the chair.”

Kaoru rolled his eyes but obeyed. 

“I guess I’ll have to sit for a long time.”

“Yep. But it’s worth it. You’ll like it.”

“Promises, promises…” Kaoru snorted and impatiently looked at the friend through the mirror, “Why so slow?”

“Can you change your hair-do? Put away more hair there but let some streaks loose,” Kojiro vaguely gestured near his own head, trying to show his unclear idea. Kaoru raised a brow but made a new high ponytail, “Like that?”

“Yeah, perfect,” Kojiro nodded and started placing clothes on his back and shoulders. The touch of artificial silk made him shiver: pink fabric, looking so alike his favourite yukata, was placed closer to the body, and green silk was put above it. Kojiro prepared so much fabric that he could make a knot on Kaoru’s chest, securing pink silk with it. 

“I can turn on the music, if you want”

“Your disgusting favourite bands? No, thank you, I’m well”

“Disgusting? They are not!” Kojiro played offended but shrugged, starting to prepare paints. “And I can turn _your_ favourite disgusting bands.”

“Oh, screw you. Turn on the radio,” Kaoru made a tiny smile. Little did they love more than laugh at something together. And radio was the best object for that. 

Kaoru shivered when a cold brush with paint suddenly touched his shoulder-blade skin and moved down, leaving a cold wide line. 

“Hey”, he gasped. The air in his throat stopped somehow, and he had shivers send down the spine. 

“Sorry”, a slight guild was heard in Kojiro’s voice. “I should have warned you. It can tickle.”

“It doesn’t tickle, it’s just very cold all of a sudden”, Kaoru shook his head a little, trying not to touch the paint with his hair, and sat still. 

“Sorry for not putting the paint into the boiling water”, Kojiro, obviously, had fun, and it was difficult for Kaoru not to turn and hit him with something. Okay. He’ll have a chance later. 

A new line was put next to the first, and again and again. Kojiro worked quite fast, and Kaoru could see through the mirror as he sometimes frowned, before rubbing away imperfect lines, and vice versa - as he sometimes smiled with pleasure. There was music in the room. Some songs they were singing along to, other ones they were laughing at for the stupidity. In general Kaoru was sure that they both are pretty comfortable, even though he wasn’t used to being a model while Kojiro was clearly nervous as he was afraid to ruin something. As if something goes wrong and Kaoru will never help him again. Even for pizza. 

Speaking of which…

“You promised to feed me.”

“And I will. But later. You can wait, I’m sure”

“Well, I don’t know”, - Kaoru chuckled and bent a little, trying to have a look over the shoulder. “Ouch!” 

Kojiro, who had just very dramatically pulled his ponytail, waved a brush (luckily, the clean one) at him, “Sit still. It can smear.”

“Okay, you such a control freak,” Kaoru rolled his eyes, but looked through the window again. It’s only now when he understood that every morning his friend looked at the covered with roses alcove, at the high fence with ivy and at the edge of his own house, visible from the end of the street. Oh, wow. It looked as if at night he could see the lights from Kaoru’s room. It’s worth checking. 

Amazing. They had been living practically window to window and they had never known. What else had he noticed yet?... It took Kaoru, lost in thoughts, a while to notice that it’s very quiet in the room and Kojiro didn’t touch his back anymore. Awaken from his daydreaming, Kaoru again looked at his friend through the mirror, “Finished?”

“Yes. I’ll take a picture and you can wash it away. Surely, I’ll help.”

“Surely! I won’t even try to do it here alone”, Kaoru snickered and bit his tongue (quite literally) when Kojiro grabbed his chin and pulled a little to him.”The hell are you doing?”

“I mentioned it when I was talking about ear-piercing. Sit still. And smile”, Kojiro rearranged his earlock, as he was a doll, and stepped away to take a picture of the result. Kaoru sat still to save a picture and hissed, “You’re such a jerk. I’ll break your arm next time.”

“You won’t. You love me,” Kojiro chuckled.

“You wish!”

“Stop moving. And I love you too, so stop making a drama. Mutuality is a key.”

“You’re such an asshole, musclehead, I just can’t…”

“That’s it. Want to take a look?”

“And you’re asking. Sure, I want to know if it worth my ass-flatting for two hours with that terrible music”

“You chose it,” Kojiro grinned and passed him a camera. Kaoru opened the picture and forgot how to breathe. He didn’t even feel how careful was Kojiro when he was removing the painting from his body. 

Painted sakura blossoms looked alive in the warm lights of sunset. They appear to be growing from the silk, fluiding down the spinne, or even from the skin itself, as a sign of a hanahaki disease. Shattering locks and metal of piercings highlighted the tenderness of flowers. Kaoru’s profile in the mirror-reflection was covered with a pink bangs and his crisp grin made only clearer the intended comparison between him and the roses behind. The beauty and sweetness that can harm anyone stupid enough to touch it with bare hands. Kaoru was watching the picture and couldn’t believe that it was him. How can it be him?...

He looked up and noticed in the reflection Kojiro’s tiny sliver of smile. And all of a sudden it became so easy to confess at the same time with a quiet voice in his ear, “I really love you, you know?...”

***

Some years later, when Kaoru after all the teasing from Kojiro decided to get a tatoo, the photo that he had in the most secure folder became the base for the design. Kojiro was speechless after seeing the flowers that now bloomed forever on Kaoru's body. Kojiro hugged him so tight that Kaoru had to push him away to take a breath.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to comment, if you'd like. ;)


End file.
